Home Transports Audi Pledges to Invest £12.5B on Self-driving and Electric Cars

Audi Pledges to Invest £12.5B on Self-driving and Electric Cars

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Audi, a renowned German luxury carmaker, is scheduled to spend a staggering £12.5 billion in the course of the next five years on transportation technologies of the future including digital services, autonomous driving, and electric mobility.

The company looks forward to preparing its enterprise for the technologies redefining the automotive industry’s future.

Audi is expected to boost its expenditure from the beginning of 2019 in a bid to make progress in the electrification of new vehicles as well as digitalization and autonomous driving.

The investment will also touch on other areas like property, plants, and equipment, as the carmaker intends to boost its research and development (R&D) spending.

The recent announcement by Audi regarding its investment is anticipated to continue the carmaker’s previously stated intentions to manufacture electric vehicles.

In 2015, the president of Audi of America Scott Keogh claimed that one-quarter of all Audi vehicles sold in the United States would have a plug by 2025.

“This planning round bears a clear signature: we are taking a very systematic approach to electric mobility and will be much more focused in future,” claimed Bram Schot, temporary chairperson of Audi’s management board. “We are consistently prioritizing our resources for future-oriented products and services that are highly attractive and relevant to the market.”

Audi is expected to roll out several electric cars in the years to come after the release of its first-ever fully electric sport utility car dubbed the Audi e-tron, at the beginning of 2019.

The company is convinced that the brand will provide about 20 electric car models by 2025, whereby almost 10 of the cars will boast fully-electric drive systems.

Audi, a Volkswagen Group-owned company, is also investing its money in digital services like “on-demand” functions.

The carmaker is also progressing with the digitalization of its cars and manufacturing plants, and is boosting its business model with the introduction of new digital services like “functions on demand.”

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Looking at its recent effort, Audi is expected to compete with other companies such as Tesla, which has already made undeniable progress in the manufacturing of its lower-tier Model 3 car, especially after reports said that the company manufactured 1000 cars per day.

According to Tesla, it aims to make 5,000 Model 3 cars weekly.

Traditional car manufacturers have been making similar efforts, with companies like Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW all coming up with plans to switch their focus to more electric cars.

Audi anticipates that its total expenditure for the duration up to 2023 will hit £35.6 billion.

The plans come after a “dieselgate” scandal relating to its parent company Volkswagen, which resulted in the arrest of Audi’s CEO Rupert Stadler back in June.

What’s more, Audi was fined £700 million, particularly for the emissions case back in October.

Audi is a German-based automobile maker that is known for designing, engineering, producing, marketing and distributing luxury cars.

The carmaker prides itself on being one of the member companies of the Volkswagen Group and has about nine production lines spread across the globe where it manufactures its vehicles.